Twice Bitten

by Diana Greenbird

  As the plague eventually petered off with the implementation of quarantines, the battle between the Mors Exercitus and the hunters continued. Until, eventually, the Order called a ceasefire.

  The Order of the Cross told the Mors Exercitus to disband – the main threat was over. With the plague no longer prevalent, the monstrous Divine could feed once more. The hunters that remained no longer sought out the Devine’s demise; the plague was over, and they had no reason to continue their hunt to stop the deaths. Now, any immune mortal born were simply innocent humans with the ability to see through the glamour – hunters no more.

  But the Mors Exercitus could not give up. They had only one purpose in their afterlife: to search and rid the world of the immune mortals. The Mors Exercitus understood that just because there were no active hunters, it did not mean that the threat entirely disappeared. If they could see through the glamour of the monstrous Divine, it meant that no vampire could ever truly be safely hidden in the shadows as before.

  The Mors Exercitus ignored the Order and continued their hunt. But the descendants of the immune hunters, no longer restricted by the quarantines the plague had set in place, decided to flee. Like the rats who continued to thrive after the plague was over, the immune mortals escaped the threat of the Mors Exercitus by hiding on ships destined for the New World. Hoping for a better life, free from all Divine, the hunt was over for the mortals.

  But for the Mors Exercitus, it was only just beginning.

  Even though a few nights ago I’d cursed myself for not writing my dream down so I could remember it, I couldn’t even bring myself to open my eyes when I woke Saturday morning, let alone scrounge around for a pen and scrap of paper. Too late, I realised I probably could have written on the “notes” app on my phone, but by then most of the dream had disappeared. I knew it had been something to do with the Divine fighting the hunters… some vampires killing them maybe? The dream was gone.

  I groaned and purposefully put a pen and a few torn pages from my school notebook on my bedside table for tomorrow night in case I dreamt of this weird war between hunters and the Divine again.

  It was the weekend, so I’d been able to sleep past my alarm. But I still looked like my old friend Death warmed up when I eventually dragged myself from my bed. Dark circles under my eyes, my head pounding. I was going back to bed. Screw it.

  I’d nearly drifted off when Gi text to tell me she was outside. Shit. I’d forgotten that I’d reluctantly agreed to go to the mall with her a couple days ago. I wouldn’t have, but Emerson said he was planning on going, too.

  I still wasn’t entirely comfortable about his interest in Gi. I’d seen them together at school and nothing looked suspicious. They looked like good friends if anything, but I wasn’t risking it until Ali checked out whether everything Emerson was doing was truly by the Code. If the rest of the AA Team were going, I would probably have let it slip, but it was just going to be Gi and Emerson this weekend.

  With the Grimm files stuck in my head, I didn’t know if I’d be able to look Emerson in the eye today. His comment about the persecution of minorities kept replaying in my mind along with Cassidy’s experiments.

  I wanted to simply be one of those people who could compartmentalise. If I could pretend in my head the people Cassidy Grimm had experimented on had been like the vampires who had broken into my home and murdered my parents I would. But those creatures were the minority. Just like humans broke the law, those had been vampires who broke the Code. Ali had been very adamant about explaining that to me.

  Though what had happened to my parents was the worst violation of power you could see from vampires, that was not the way of the Blood World. I did not have to fear the lamia (I was using their own term now). Though more powerful than me, most were as harmless as any other human. Which meant it was more likely the witches Cassidy had experimented on had led the same lives as my parents, rather than their killers.

  No matter if what Emerson was doing now seemed suspicious, I couldn’t ever imagine wishing that fate upon him. Or any creature. It was barbaric. I felt the second-hand guilt of simply being the same species as Cassidy.

  ‘Oh, Olivia. You look like crap,’ Gi said. She, like always, looked like a ray of sunshine and happiness, perfectly put together, if a little geeky with her hipster wire-rim glasses.

  I didn’t bother to say anything as I got into her car. It was a tiny Mini Cooper, bright red. Disgustingly cute, like her.

  ‘I mean that in the nicest way possible.’

  ‘I’m sure,’ I managed to say. ‘Let’s hit a coffee shop first, yeah?’

  ‘Of course!’

  Gi mindlessly chattered as she drove us to the mall. She updated me on Martha’s job she did after most school nights and on weekends – some form of volunteer work that taught people how to register to vote – and mindless anecdotes about her sisters that probably would have been funny if I were paying attention.

  I scrunched up in my seat, trying not to fall asleep. The weather, at least, was helping with that. My legs were freezing in the skirt I was still having to wear because of the CAM boot, but I’d piled on the layers on my body: top, hoodie, leather jacket and scarf. As the week progressed, though, they weren’t exactly battling the cold in any meaningful way.

  I processed about a quarter of what she said. I eventually started coming around whilst we sat opposite each other in Starbucks. The caffeine was slowly working into my system, but I hardly felt better, just a little bit more awake. My mind still flitted to other things – like how comfortable and warm my bed was, and the dream I’d had last night.

  ‘Emerson’s not going to make it.’

  ‘Excuse me?’ I didn’t mean to put so much malice in my voice.

  Gi winced. ‘He managed to get an appointment to fix his car window. His car’s in the shop and Grayson and Charlotte have gone out of town so he can’t use theirs.’

  I groaned.

  ‘I didn’t think you were that looking forward to seeing him,’ Gi said.

  ‘I wasn’t. I’m not,’ I said.

  Gi watched me with curious eyes whilst I finished the rest of my coffee. Eventually she said, whilst playing with the sugar packets on the table, ‘are you sure you and Emerson don’t have, like, a… thing?’

  I choked on the last sip of my coffee. ‘Definitely not. You’re starting to sound like Jenny.’

  ‘But you did step in so he wouldn’t get into a fight,’ Gi reminded me. ‘I know we haven’t really talked about it, but that was insane, Liv. Like one second Emerson was going to get hit and the next thing you were in the middle and looked like you were going to kill Brett for even looking at him.’

  ‘That’s not how I looked.’

  Gi didn’t agree. I knew she was probably thinking about Emerson’s parting words that time at lunch when he’d stormed off to “eat” with Grayson. He hadn’t hung out with us at lunch for the rest of the week, though I knew he still text Gi and they hung out after school.

  ‘And we don’t like each other.’

  ‘Okay.’ She didn’t even bother to make her tone sound like she believed me.

  We spent an hour shopping around – or rather, Gi shopped, I just tagged along and tried to stay conscious.

  Martha sent a steady stream of texts from her volunteer work to our group chat, whereas Jenny and Robbie were radio silent, no doubt enjoying their one-on-one date time. Emerson was unusually silent considering he was probably just sitting in the waiting room of the shop for his car to be fixed. Probably purposefully since he refused to message since I’d broken into his car.

  I’d told Gi to just delete me from the group chat, but she wouldn’t. She was adamant that Emerson was going to “get over” this mood and I shouldn’t be excluded because he was having “a moment”.

  By the time lunch came around we’d reached the food court. Gi went to get us a table whilst I ordered our food at one of the vendors. I’d just had our order called out when I heard my name.

 
I turned around and saw a group of girls my age. Designer labels, hair peroxided to perfection, skin a fake-orange tan. Though they weren’t in their usual cheer-uniforms, I recognised what the AA Team referred to as the Cheer crowd from the practice I’d witnessed with Lawrence and the occasional class I shared with a few of them.

  I only had one class with Emma, but we mostly managed to ignore each other. Since she’d disregarded me of any worth at our first meeting, my placating her had done the trick and I didn’t warrant any attention. Though I’d allied myself with the AA Team, the bottom rung of the social ladder at our high school, I’d mostly been given the “randoms” treatment. AKA the middle ground between Cheer crowd and the AA Team where I didn’t get taunted, I didn’t get special attention drawn to me, I was simply beneath their radar.

  Since we’d been eating in the auditorium, I didn’t see any of the drama between Emma and Gi first-hand. Jenny hinted at what went on throughout the week and Martha was always happy to spill any of Gi’s secrets. There was a lot of animosity there, but I hadn’t been pulled into it yet. From the look on Emma and co’s faces now, it looked as if that was about to change.

  ‘I told you it was her,’ one of Emma’s companions said. She was short, with thick eyeliner that covered most of her eyelids and a ton of hairspray keeping the top part of her hair aloft whilst the rest fell about her face in dead-straight lines. I wonder if anyone ever told her it made her look like she had a mullet. Or an extremely deformed head.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ Emma asked.

  She flicked her hair over her shoulder. Her fake-nails were a pearl-pink colour and looked more like talons. Out of her cheer uniform, she looked more… tacky? I wasn’t sure if that was the right word, but it definitely seemed to apply. Designer labels couldn’t actually buy style. Gauche. That was the word I was looking for.

  I lifted my tray rather than answer. As in: I’m here eating, what do you think I’m doing?

  Emma laughed like I was hilarious. ‘No. I mean what are you doing alone. Aren’t you usually with Emerson and Gi?’

  I couldn’t tell which pissed Emma off more: that I hung out with Gi or that Emerson had chosen to add one more social leper to his friend list – and was still ignoring her.

  Since he’d been avoiding me (and by extension the AA Team) at lunch, he, Grayson and Charlotte had been hanging out separate to the Cheer crowd. Even when he wasn’t tied to the social rejects, Emerson preferred to keep away from the populars and, therefore, Emma. I had a feeling it was due to his friendship with Gi; he didn’t want to associate at all with anyone who had hurt her in the past. He was still an asshole, but I had to admit he was a decent friend to Gi, even if it turned out all to be an act in the end.

  I ignored Emma and started to walk back to the table where Gi was waiting. I never took part in school drama. Just like I didn’t really do friends, anything I was involved in tended to get dark pretty quickly. Add hatred and bullying into that mix and Death perked his little head up. He was a very jealous friend for my attention. I was not getting into it with this bitch. The last thing this situation needed was some natural disaster, criminal element or freak accident.

  That was when Emma and her cronies spotted that I wasn’t here by myself at all, but was with Gi.

  ‘Wait – you’re here with Gi. Alone. Are you out on a date?’

  Emma’s two friends giggled to themselves, humming I Kissed a Girl under their breaths.

  ‘Is that a problem with you if I am?’ Homophobic asshole, I didn’t add.

  ‘We should have guessed you were a rug muncher,’ Emma ground her teeth.

  ‘I assume you meant to say gay?’ I really wished I wasn’t holding a tray full of food at that moment in time. ‘And what about me gave you a clue to my sexuality?’ I didn’t give Emma a chance to respond.

  ‘It seems to me that you’re under the misguided impression that I give a shit about what you think about me. Why don’t you grow the hell up; stop being such a moronic cliché and get a little bit of perspective.

  ‘If who someone decides to have sex with is really the be all and end all of their worth to you, you’ll find a lot of people will start to judge you that way, too. And from what I’ve heard, you’re not exactly a stranger to whoring yourself out to the football team.’

  There was a reason Martha nicknamed the cheerleaders “Satan’s Mistresses”, since the school mascot was the devil. It was a lot better nickname than the “Cheer” crowd, since they had about as much joy as a doctor’s waiting room. The Sons were quite possibly the only guys from the popular crowd that hadn’t done at least something with the cheerleaders and their queen bee.

  I walked away, ignoring Emma’s spluttering and benign threats about how I was going to regret saying that to her, that dating Gi was the worst and last mistake I would ever get to make, yadda, yadda, yadda.

  I placed the food down in front of Gi.

  ‘Was that Emma you were just talking to then?’

  ‘Huh? Oh, yeah. We’re like BFFs now,’ I said sarcastically. I grabbed a few potato wedges and shoved them into my mouth. Urgh. I should have gone for fries.

  ‘Liv, tell me you didn’t antagonise her.’

  ‘I didn’t antagonise her.’ Much.

  ‘You need to be careful around her. I’m serious, Liv.’ Gi seemed to read my face that I was doubting the severity of her warning. ‘Emma is used to being the queen bee and getting exactly what she wants.’

  Martha had mentioned that Gi used to be “co” queen. I could hardly picture her standing by Emma’s side. Gi’s image didn’t fit with what they had going on. Though I supposed that might be a bit different if they were all wearing their cheer uniforms.

  ‘Emma doesn’t like people messing with her perfect image and plan. It’s why she hates me so much.’ Gi adjusted her glasses. She didn’t make any motion to start touching her food.

  ‘We were supposed to go to college together and find our husbands in the second year, be each other’s maid of honour and have a boy and a girl who’d fall in love. I ruined that plan for her when I came out and she has tried everything to ruin my life since.’

  I continued to eat my food in silence. The one thing about not having any friends or family to care about me meant that I’d never been in that position to be rejected before for who I was. Or have someone I was close to turn against me. But I knew a little about being judged because of your sexual history. Not that I was in the mood to share it with Gi. We’d only been friends for a week.

  ‘Emma just needs to learn that the world doesn’t revolve around her – or she’ll have a massive culture shock after graduation,’ I finally said, trying to make light of the situation.

  ‘The world does revolve around her – at least for now. And that’s what you need to be careful about. You’ve got a full year until graduation. That’s plenty of time for her to ruin your life.’

  That phrase again: ruin my life.

  ‘It’d take a lot for her to do that,’ I said.

  Gi shook her head at me. The silk ribbons in her hair glinted in the light as she did. She’d still not touched her food since she’d seen me with her ex-best friend.

  ‘Emma petitioned for me to have to change in the boy’s locker rooms for gym; posted “public enemy number one” images in all the bathrooms telling girls I was going to spy on them. She got our health class teacher fired starting a rumour that she was the one who “turned” me, and we were secretly having an affair.’

  Gi ran through the list like she was attempting to purge herself of the memories. Her voice hitched as she tried to continue and failed for a moment. Her eyes glistened with tears and she took off her glasses, wiped them quickly and replaced them.

  ‘This summer, she posted a video to our school website, Facebook and YouTube of all our texts after I’d come out to her and any old ones that read without context sounded like I was coming on to her. It’s why the Cheer crowd sings Katy Perry when I’m around because that’s the song
she put as the background.

  ‘My dad was harassed at work and even Mi Cha and Dae were getting picked on at school. I didn’t even know if I’d be able to continue going to church it got that bad.’

  ‘That’s insane,’ I said.

  Most public schools I was used to had drama a lot more deadly than normal teen bullying from a cheerleader. Arguments that ended in knife fights; kids getting their heads bashed in with rocks; rape. But just because I’d seen worse didn’t make what happened (and was still happening to Gi) any easier for her.

  A lot of kids in the system I’d known had killed themselves because they couldn’t take what was happening to them at school anymore. Or had simply “disappeared”. I couldn’t count how many old friends of mine had simply fallen of the face of the earth, never to be seen again. Gi’s ability to keep going and the support she had from her family was a testament to how strong she was; not a comparison that she had it easy to some people out there.

  ‘And she just got away with that shit?’ I said.

  It was Gi’s turn to shrug. ‘She’s the queen bee. The school’s on her side. And most of the parents agreed with what she was doing: warning the student body of my twisted mind and our depraved health class teacher.’

  Emerson had inadvertently gotten me involved in Gi’s life. Without him spending so much time with her, I wouldn’t have started to become her friend. Usually, this was the exact sort of thing I stayed out of. It was the sort of drama that started off small, but eventually rolled into something massive when I got involved. My presence came with Death, after all.

  But I couldn’t stay out of it. There was something about Gi – her innocence, her selflessness, her optimism, whatever it was – that called out to me to be a shield against Emma and the world. The AA Team clearly just helped Gi bury her head in the sand: like Jenny telling her to ignore the taunts, or Martha’s lack of sympathy as she teased Gi for once being part of the popular crowd.